Covid becoming just another bug

Me too Rosie. My husband walks our daughter’s dog in our local park. He sometimes stops to talk to other dog walkers. He says they stay socially distanced. One day a couple of weeks ago he told me that one of the other dog walkers told them all that his wife and daughter were at home with Covid. I asked him to stay well away from him and the other dog walkers.

Amberone I was at a Welsh hospital last week and the number of staff not wearing masks when sitting chatting at break time was astonishing.

If someone I lived with tested positive I would isolate as well even though it is no longer required

All anyone can do is protect themselves as much as they feel they need to - I still wear my masks indoors and stay out of crowds as much as possible. Between the ill-informed, the misinformed, the 'bored with Covid now' brigade and the 'never believed it in the first place brigade' I don't much trust people in general anymore.

I was at an antique fair in Builth Wells a few weeks ago - it's still law in Wales to wear a face mask indoors and I was staggered by the number of people who, despite constantly being asked to by the organisers, refused to wear one.

I overheard one trader telling another that his wife was at home with 'that Corona thing that's been doing the rounds' so she wasn't there to help him. We avoided going anywhere near him but we did end up wondering how many people were there who should have been at home, isolating.

Another woman told me 'it's okay because we've mostly been vaccinated and there haven't been any new mutations'. When I mentioned there were actually sixteen but I wasn't sure if the latest had hit the UK yet (it has now) her jaw dropped and she replied 'well, no one has told us about them so they can't be important'.

I was referring to me by the way! Think wise.

…a lot of ‘thinks’ there….

I am glad they have taken time to think about this it’s much harder to weigh up the benefits with children who rarely get seriously ill from this virus
I think parents will think hard about this and the uptake will certainly not be 100%

Given that we now know that the vaccine doesn’t completely prevent infection or transmission I think they are doing it purely for the children’s benefit. I just think that they could have started it weeks ag given that America has. I think Whitty is far better when he’s not standing next to government ministers.

I think they have been studying the evidence so far, Maybee and taking all factors into consideration, including the fact that most children would not develop severe symptoms from Covid. A few have developed Long Covid which can be devastating for some.

If they may not become ill or even develop symptoms then the question we should ask is: are 12-15 year olds being vaccinated for their own benefit or for the benefit of society as a whole?

Interesting question posed just now to Chris Whitty. If we were ahead of other countries vaccinating older people why have we now left it to when 12 year olds have gone back to school to start vaccinating them when they could have been vaccinated during the school holidays especially as they’ve just said that, unlike adults, 12 years olds seem to develop good immunity soon after having their first vaccine.

Edith81, my sister’s son in law-who is anti-vax/Covid doesn’t exist, swears he had flu in early July. He was ill for quite a while and is still suffering the after effects now. His wife says he has long Covid!

I agree with you MOnica. Covid isn't like a highly toxic gas which stays in the atmosphere and which could kill if even a few particles are breathed in. In that case, specialist masks are needed.

Coronavirus is actually very fragile and doesn't last long in the atmosphere. The biggest risk is when people project droplets from their mouth or nose (from sneezing). Even a mask with gaps will stop droplets from travelling far because they'll be caught in the mask.

Masks don't stop the virus 100%, but they reduce viral load by reducing the number of particles lingering in the atmosphere. Obviously, a crowded space will have more particles than an uncrowded one and people are more at risk if they spend more than a few minutes very close to an infected person. However, they've been shown to have an effect.

Flu hasn't been eradicated. However, the measures people have taken to avoid Covid have helped reduce the transmission of flu.

If you're suggesting that some deaths which were attributed to Covid were actually flu, the viruses are quite easily identifiable and it's highly unlikely.

I still wear my mask in public places and avoid crowded areas, but has anyone noticed how ‘flu seems to have been eradicated this year. It appears that all deaths were attributed to COVID and not one person died of the ‘flu. AMAZING!!!!

Today I have had to have a tooth removed...now need another tooth attaching to my metal dental plate...wont be ready until Thursday afternoon...so for now I'm so very happy to be able to wear my mask..?

Effalump I am not sure where you get your masks, but the ones I buy, and make fit closely round the face.

Nothing is perfect but you, like many others of your ilk, are rejecting the better than anything else in search of the perfect. A perfect mask, would kill you anyway, because if there is no way the air you breathe out can escape, then there is no way you can breath air in.

An ordinary mask that will certainly protect you from having your face washed in the particulate matter an infected person will produce and reduce the amount of infection that reaches you and protects others, equally from you. The main way that the virus infects people is through breathing it in through the nose, yes, a few may have contacted it through touching something or through their eyes, but ordinary masks can still reduce the amountof infection in the air significantly.

People may have reasons for wearing their mask outside or in their car, so it’s better not to judge them. My Dh also wears hearing aids and glasses and the three contraptions cause all sorts of tangles! He’s twice lost a hearing aid when removing his mask. Fortunate, each time it was found after a long search but if it hadn’t, that would have been an expensive loss.

Thus, if we’re just going from a shop to the PO, say, he’ll keep the mask on rather than risk losing a hearing aid. I sometimes forget I’m wearing a mask. Today we’ve had workmen in the house. After they’d gone, I realised I was sitting here looking at GN still with my mask on!

effalump

Unless you're wearing something like the gas mask my mother had to wear at the age of 9 y.o. during the second World War, anything else has been a waste of time. Those 'protective face masks' you buy in 10's etc. gape at each side of your cheeks therefore blowing behind anything you exhale. Imagine an octopus when it wants to make a quick getaway, it blows through it's breathing tube. Also if you haven't worn goggles, like swimming goggles, viruses enter the body through mucus membranes which means your eyes are a perfect entrance into the body. Far better, building your immunity and give your body's defence systems to arm themselves with the kind of cells that kill viruses. How have we survived decades without doing what's happened this last 18 months?

So how does a person "build immunity"? Sorry, but there are so many misunderstandings about the immune system. I would like to know what people seriously think can be done to fight Covid through the immune system. Certainly, a person can improve the respiratory system and/or lose weight etc., which might help with reducing the effects of the virus, but I have never heard about anything apart from vaccination and previous infection which can reduce the risk of catching something in the first place.

lizzypopbottle

I do think it's sad to see many older people walking about in the open air wearing masks. Where I live, quite often, the nearest person to them is me and I'm usually on the other side of the road! I often see people driving their cars, quite alone in their motor bubble, wearing masks. Of course, if you're in a crowded place or in a queue, protect yourself by wearing a mask.

An Oxford study found that, globally, fewer than 10% of covid infections were picked up outdoors and that was in all outdoor settings, including crowded places. If there's no one closer than two metres, outdoors, it's surely not necessary to encumber your breathing with a mask.

Agree about outdoors, But indoors it makes sense.

effalump

Unless you're wearing something like the gas mask my mother had to wear at the age of 9 y.o. during the second World War, anything else has been a waste of time. Those 'protective face masks' you buy in 10's etc. gape at each side of your cheeks therefore blowing behind anything you exhale. Imagine an octopus when it wants to make a quick getaway, it blows through it's breathing tube. Also if you haven't worn goggles, like swimming goggles, viruses enter the body through mucus membranes which means your eyes are a perfect entrance into the body. Far better, building your immunity and give your body's defence systems to arm themselves with the kind of cells that kill viruses. How have we survived decades without doing what's happened this last 18 months?

Wrong. Just wrong, anything is better than nothing.

I do think it's sad to see many older people walking about in the open air wearing masks. Where I live, quite often, the nearest person to them is me and I'm usually on the other side of the road! I often see people driving their cars, quite alone in their motor bubble, wearing masks. Of course, if you're in a crowded place or in a queue, protect yourself by wearing a mask.

An Oxford study found that, globally, fewer than 10% of covid infections were picked up outdoors and that was in all outdoor settings, including crowded places. If there's no one closer than two metres, outdoors, it's surely not necessary to encumber your breathing with a mask.

This might help with the mask question:

Unless you're wearing something like the gas mask my mother had to wear at the age of 9 y.o. during the second World War, anything else has been a waste of time. Those 'protective face masks' you buy in 10's etc. gape at each side of your cheeks therefore blowing behind anything you exhale. Imagine an octopus when it wants to make a quick getaway, it blows through it's breathing tube. Also if you haven't worn goggles, like swimming goggles, viruses enter the body through mucus membranes which means your eyes are a perfect entrance into the body. Far better, building your immunity and give your body's defence systems to arm themselves with the kind of cells that kill viruses. How have we survived decades without doing what's happened this last 18 months?

I believe we told at first that masks make little difference because there was insufficient PPE for the medics, who desperately needed it. The tune was changed when sufficient PPE was sourced. Am I cynical? Probably!

wrt candlestick makers, there is actually a return to skilled craft. I don't know if you have seen this charity I find it all very interesting